{"id":262252,"date":"2026-01-28T18:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/262252\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:21:10","slug":"all-the-laughter-is-gone-hundreds-at-funeral-of-ran-gvili-israels-final-hostage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/262252\/","title":{"rendered":"‘All the laughter is gone’: Hundreds at funeral of Ran Gvili, Israel\u2019s final hostage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ran Gvili, 24,\u00a0 the final hostage returned from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, was laid to rest in his hometown of Meitar in southern Israel on Wednesday, eulogized by family members who spoke of their pride, defiance and sorrow after a more than two-year struggle to bring back the remains of the police special forces officer killed in battle on October 7.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of Israelis lined the roads with flags as they paid tribute to Gvili, whose body was found by IDF soldiers in a Gaza on Monday. The funeral was notable for being the first hostage burial attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a host of other senior officials, including far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Knesset speaker Amir Ohana and Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef.<\/p>\n

Gvili\u2019s mother Talik eulogized her son, speaking of her pride and imagining him sitting in heaven, a glass of arak in his hand, part of a pantheon of fallen Israeli heroes, listening to the eulogies.<\/p>\n

\u201cRani and the other heroes give us the strength,\u201d said Gvili. \u201cYou\u2019re so with me, Rani, I\u2019m Talik Gvili, a proud, proud mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also issued a defiant warning to Israel\u2019s enemies like Hamas who seek to destroy the Jewish state.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou, our enemies, tried to scare us, look what\u2019s left of you, and you\u2019ll see what will be left of you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPolice officer Master Sgt. Ran Gvili.(Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Gvili, a member of the elite police Yasam unit, was awaiting surgery for a broken shoulder on October 7, 2023, when he began hearing about the Hamas invasion, a 50-minute drive from his family home in Meitar.<\/p>\n

He threw on his uniform, hopped on one of his motorcycles, and sped to Kibbutz Alumim, where he battled Hamas terrorists for hours before he was killed.<\/p>\n

Gvili had been the last of 251 people kidnapped on October 7 to remain captive, following the return of the rest of the hostages, living and dead, under the current ceasefire. For more than 50 days, he was the only hostage still held in Gaza, amid Hamas\u2019s insistence that it had been unable to locate him, leaving his family and country fearful he might never be recovered.<\/p>\n

Gvili\u2019s father Itzik, spoke of the emotions of how it felt to open the coffin that returned to Israel on Monday and touch his son\u2019s body \u201cfor the first time in two and a half years, it was well worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tItzik Gvili, left, father of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili, whose remains were brought back to Israel, speaks during his son\u2019s funeral in the southern town of Meitar on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n

Gvili\u2019s younger sister, Shira Gvili, sobbed over the flag-covered casket at the start of her eulogy before speaking of her friendship with her brother and the unimaginable loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe forest isn\u2019t the same forest, nice clothes don\u2019t feel the same and schnitzel will never taste the same,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the laughter is gone and I\u2019m left with only memories and every motorcycle I see takes me back and sometimes I smile when I see one and sometimes it feels like an arrow to my heart,\u201d she said, referring to Gvili\u2019s love of motorcycles and his collection.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tShira Gvili, sister of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili, whose remains were finally brought back to Israel on January 26, reacts as she speaks during his funeral in the southern town of Meitar on January 28, 2026. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

She told her brother about her travels, her part in the struggle to bring his body home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last month, I went to America, we got to places that I never imagined I\u2019d ever get to,\u201d she said. \u201cI really did everything; I spoke at the UN and Congress and the White House and all of it in English and I did it so that you would come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the family, several politicians spoke, each using the opportunity to drive home their agenda.<\/p>\n

President Isaac Herzog added a conciliatory tone to the funeral, saying that Israel could slowly begin healing as a nation now that Gvili had returned home.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tThe convoy carrying the coffin of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili, whose remains were finally brought back to Israel on January 26, proceeds towards the cemetery during a funeral ceremony in the southern town of Meitar on January 28, 2026. (Photo by Ilya Yefimovich \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

\u201cAn entire nation looks upon you today\u2026and knows: through your path, and through Ran\u2019s path, we must rise from this terrible pain,\u201d said Herzog. \u201cThe nation must now rise to the next chapter of our existence as a people. Rise strong, confident in our way; rise hand in hand, believing in our State of Israel \u2014 Jewish and democratic \u2014 and guarding it with utmost devotion, as Ran guarded it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu declared in his eulogy that Israel was determined to dismantle Hamas, to dismantle the Gaza Strip, to the applause of the crowd.<\/p>\n

Specifying that Gvili killed 14 terrorists on October 7, and was shot twice in his body on that day, Netanyahu warned Israel\u2019s enemies, saying that they should look at Talik Gvili, Gvili\u2019s mother, to know that they will be defeated.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lays a wreath of flowers on the casket of hostage Ran Gvili, whose remains were finally brought back to Israel on January 26, during the funeral in the southern town of Meitar on January 28, 2026. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

During his eulogy, police minister Ben Gvir called upon all Israelis, naming those from the right and left, religious and secular, Arabs and Moslems and Druze and Circassian, \u201cto destroy the Hamas organization, pPunishment for the terrorists, those who raped our women and killed our children deserve the punishment of death,\u201d he said to a smattering of applause from the crowd.<\/p>\n

Chief Rabbi Yosef compared Gvili\u2019s battle on October 7 to that of Jewish rebel leader Simon Bar Kochba, who initiated a rebellion against the Roman Empire in the second century.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tGirls reach to kiss the casket of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili, whose remains were returned to Israel, in the southern town of Meitar on Wednesday, 28, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg \/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n

Referring to the legend that tells of the bodies of Jewish people not rotting during the Bar Kochba revolt, despite the Romans preventing them from being buried, Yosef said a similar \u201cmiracle\u201d occurred on Monday, when Ran \u201creturned intact, whole of body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former hostages were in attendance, including Bar Kuperstein, Omer Wenkert, Segev Kalfon, Avinatan Or and Yosef Chaim Ohana, along with supporters from both the hawkish Tikvah Forum and the larger Hostages Forum, both of the organizations that supported the hostages\u2019 families. The Gvilis belonged to both organizations.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFormer hostage Avinatan Or and bereaved father Itzik Gvili at the funeral of Ran Gvili in Meitar, on January 28, 2026. (Hostages Forum)<\/p>\n

Also speaking at the funeral was Leo Terrell, a representative of US President Donald Trump and chair of the administration\u2019s Antisemitism Task Force.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a message for all of you from the greatest president of my lifetime, and the best friend Israel\u2019s ever had in the White House, Donald J. Trump,\u201d said Terrell, adding that this was his first visit to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is extremely happy that not only Rani is home, but all the hostages are home. I want to relay a message from the President: You have an ally in America, you have a friend in America, you will never fight hate alone because the United States of America stands behind Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tLeo Terrell, Chair of the US Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Senior Counsel, speaks during the funeral of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili, whose remains were finally brought back to Israel on January 26, in the southern town of Meitar on January 28, 2026. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Trump was instrumental in brokering the ceasefire that saw the remaining living and deceased hostages returned to Israel.<\/p>\n

Singer Idan Amedi, who recently served another round of reserve duty in Gaza after being severely wounded during earlier fighting in Gaza, and was part of the mission to retrieve Gvili\u2019s body from the Gaza Strip, sang his song, \u201cNigmar\u201d (It\u2019s Over) at the end of the funeral.<\/p>\n

The funeral was held in Meitar\u2019s sports field, the same location used for the community\u2019s weekly Saturday night rally calling for Gvili\u2019s release, and was attended by thousands of attendees, including police officers, neighbors and supporters, aside from Gvili\u2019s family and friends.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPallbearers from the Israeli Police carry the casket of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili, whose remains were finally brought back to Israel on January 26, during his funeral in the southern town of Meitar on January 28, 2026. (Photo by Chaim Goldberg \/ POOL \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

Attendees arrived at the funeral in shuttle buses, including high school classes, local teenagers and entire families, many with Israeli flags in hand, standing in silence throughout the eulogies, often applauding after some of the speakers.<\/p>\n

The attendees gathered in the streets of Meitar at the end of the funeral, the police officers saluting Gvili\u2019s coffin as his body was brought to burial in the local cemetery, the community in which he was raised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ran Gvili, 24,\u00a0 the final hostage returned from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, was laid to rest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-262252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}